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Portrayal of women in henrik ibsen's dolls house
Is Ibsen’s Doll House a feminist play? This theory of political, economic, and social equality of the sexes is the fundamental basis of Feminism
Portrayal of women in henrik ibsen's dolls house
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A Dollhouse was written by Henrik Ibsen, he had many themes that came out throughout the play and I think one important theme is the role of women and how they sacrifice themselves for their family. The author represents that the women are less important to men and shows that the role of a women is to sacrifice herself. For example, Nora’s is “Obligated” to please her husband. Ibsen also uses the role of female characters to comment that even with social expectations and difficulty, that choice is essential for all human beings. This role represented by women in the play can be seen through family sacrifices, the general insult of women and the decisions made by female characters.
Women are forced to sacrifice their lives for their families.
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She had felt like she needed to say yes to avoid hurting anyone. She was giving herself away in marriage because that was one of the ways that a woman could support her family. The play reveals that Mrs. Lindes true love turned out to be Krogstad. Although, due to her situation, she married for money in order to support her family. Mrs. Linde, a woman wasn’t working for herself, she had to sacrifice her own desires for the well-being of her family. Therefore, this was restricting her to the values of society. Mrs. Linde discusses with Nora her decision of saving Torvalds life by taking the situation, solving it on her own and borrowing money.
Mrs. Linde: “And your father never told Torvald the money wasn’t from him?” (ACT 1 794)
Nora: “No, never. Papa died right about then. Id considered brining him into my secret and begging him never to tell. But he was too sick at the time- and then, sadly, it didn’t matter. (ACT 1 794)
Mrs. Linde then had asked “And you’ve never confided your husband since” Nora then replied
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The wife has the right to control herself and shouldn’t have to deal with a controlling husband and that is where the Dollhouse play comes in, because Torvald seemed very controlling over Nora at times. The Dollhouse play ends with Nora choosing to leave Torvald and her family because she felt like she wasn’t a good wife and mother. I believe that Nora did this by choice and she did it because she wasn’t treated the way she should have been. Torvald wanted to work things out but Nora wanted nothing to do with him. She wanted to go her own way and start over and be happy and that’s all a girl needs, happiness and that wasn’t something Torvald was giving her. She found her happiness and got what she deserved at the end of it
Torvald is simply “preoccupied with work and money leading to a reduction of values from a moral to a material plane” (Literary Resource Center). Though, Torvald’s worries were not uncommon, many men upper class men were expected to have happy family lives. In the nineteenth century, women were not expected to make a living, providing for their families was a responsibility left for the man of the
In the play “A Doll’s House”, marriage is merely a social formality. Torvald and Nora, husband and wife, share merely a few intimate moments throughout the entire novel and their relationship is devoid of any affection at all. The setting of the play “A Doll’s House” is 19th century Norway and the norms and beliefs of this era play a huge role in defining the role of Torvald as a husband, and Nora as a wife. The husband in this era is supposed to be the sole guardian of the house, responsible for taking care of the families financial requirements and ensuring a high standing for the family in society. Torvald believes that Nora is confined to looking after their children and basically taking care of the physical aspects of their household, and Nora feels so oppressed by her husband that she helps him in a time of dire need without even telling him. This incident occurs in the scene where Torvald falls dangerously sick and is too foolish to spend money on foreign treatment that could save his life, Nora sensing the grave danger goes behind Torvald’s back and collects money to save Torvalds life by committing the crime of forgery.
Linde is an example of a woman acting predatory with her jealously and advancing herself as the motive for her actions. When Nora and Mrs. Linde are catching up on each other’s lives, Mrs. Linde tells Nora of the hardship in her life and says, “No one to work for, and yet you’re always having to snap up your opportunities. You have to live; and so you grow selfish” (Ibsen 2192). This emphasizes the nature of predatoriness in this society that is necessary to live within it. Mrs. Linde mentions that she has struggled to find work and garners Nora’s sympathy to then follow up and ask Nora if Torvald could possibly find her a job. Through Mrs. Linde, Ibsen illustrates this type of subtle predatoriness that is commonly used to advance oneself in his society. When Krogstad tells Mrs. Linde about his letter to Torvald, instead of stopping Torvald from getting the letter, and finding out Nora’s secret, she says, “Helmer’s got to learn everything; this dreadful secret has to be aired; those two have come have to come to a full understanding; all these lies and evasions can’t go on” (Ibsen 2222). Mrs. Linde gets exactly what she wants, a life similar to Nora’s with Krogstad, without having to cause any damage, but demonstrates predatory nature through acting with the intention to hurt Nora due to the jealousy she felt for Nora’s life. Ibsen suggests that many women want to get married and live the life of a life of a perfect housewife, but do not succeed in this, like Mrs.
Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, and author of Nicomachean Ethics, presented his theory of happiness which incorporates major ideas controversial to many. To Aristotle, happiness is not a temporary state mind, but rather, a long term goal, and in effort for humans to achieve this goal, we need to have good morals, or as he states, “complete virtue.” Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis, presents two ideas himself: the attachment theory and the adaptation principle. They both offer two different views which validate and refute Aristotle’s theory of happiness. Finally, Sigmund Freud’s “Civilization and its Discontents” presents the idea that society has tarnished the human being in irreversible ways. From these texts, it is clear that the attachment theory is accommodated by the Aristotelian envision of happiness since it complies with his idea that social attachments are necessary to be fully happy. However it is also evident that the adaptation principle as well as Freud’s “Civilization and its Discontents” pose a problem for Aristotle since they refute his theory of happiness by rejecting this same idea that societal influence brings happiness.
He is a smug bank manager. With his job comes many responsibilities. He often treats his wife as if she is one of these responsibilities. Torvald is very authoritative and puts his appearance, both social and physical, ahead of his wife that he supposedly loves. Torvald is a man that is worried about his reputation, and cares little about his wife's feelings.
Those of you who have just read A Doll's House for the first time will, I suspect, have little trouble forming an initial sense of what it is about, and, if past experience is any guide, many of you will quickly reach a consensus that the major thrust of this play has something to do with gender relations in modern society and offers us, in the actions of the heroine, a vision of the need for a new-found freedom for women (or a woman) amid a suffocating society governed wholly by unsympathetic and insensitive men.
Nora was the main character who wanted to be free and make her own decisions in life. Her husband Torvald thought of Nora as a careless child who couldn’t make her own decisions and constantly needed guidance. They never had an equal partnership in their relationship. Nora was always inessential and Torvald was the significant one. They were once very poor and Nora tried taking action by illegally borrowing money to move to Italy and support the family at that time. At the end of the play Torvald freaks out on Nora after she finally informed him about Dr. Rank’s upcoming death. “Ah! What a rude awakening for me! For eight years my pride and joy, a hypocrite, a liar, even worse, a criminal! (Pg. 763 Line 378)” Torvald was very upset with her and his emotions changed drastically in a brief moment after receiving another letter from Mrs. Helmer. The letter was about Nora’s contract being returned and there is no longer the thought of fear for her fraud. Torvald settles down and is in complete joy at this moment from his wife helping him. However, Nora states that they both never understood each other until now and after eight years of marriage they finally talk seriously. She said that he never loved her and he thought that it was fun to be in love with her. “No, just having fun. You’ve always been very nice to me. But our home has never been anything but a playpen. I’ve been
Torvald is the only one in the family who works and provides for his family who needs to survive in their lifestyle. Because of this, Nora must always go and ask for money from Torvald, hoping for his acceptance of her using his income. Nora also had no possessions to her name because when a woman got married, all her possessions were considered under the control of her new husband.... ... middle of paper ...
In both plays, the female protagonist is in a strained marriage, and takes drastic measures to leave that relationship. Nora has been married to Torvald for eight years, and has three children with him. However, she hides things from him and lies to him, i.e., her sweet tooth for macaroons, which he has forbidden, and, more importantly, the large loan from Krogstad. Nora hides, lies, and pleases – she plays the trophy wife for Torvald, but does as she wishes anyway. She does not do so in a cruel-hearted way, but she does so nonetheless. As the play goes on, she realizes that their marriage has been loveless, more “for show” than anything else, and has been based on trivial conversations and matters. She says to Torvald, “Eight whole years, no, more, even since we first knew each other – and never have we exchanged one serious word about serious things… [You] never loved me. You only thought how nice it was to be in love with me” (Ibsen 79-80). Nora was the “doll wife” in Tor...
Nora engages in a mutually dependent game with Torvald in that she gains power in the relationship by being perceived as weak, yet paradoxically she has no real power or independence because she is a slave to the social construction of her gender. Her epiphany at the end at the play realises her and her marriage as a product of society, Nora comes to understand that she has been living with a constr...
Those of you who have just read A Doll's House for the first time will, I suspect, have little trouble forming an initial sense of what it is about, and, if past experience is any guide, many of you will quickly reach a consensus that the major thrust of this play has something to do with gender relations in modern society and offers us, in the actions of the heroine, a vision of the need for a new-found freedom for women (or a woman) amid a suffocating society governed wholly by unsympathetic and insensitive men.
Mrs. Linde is an integral part of Nora’s transformation from a “squirrel” to a free woman. Mrs. Linde acts as Nora’s guide throughout the play and leads to her realization of how superficial and materialistic her life with Torvald really was.Were not for Mrs. Linde and her actions, Nora who have never grasped reality and would remained as Torvald’s doll.
In "A Doll's House", Ibsen portrays the bleak picture of a role held by women of all economic classes that is sacrificial. The female characters in the play back-up Nora's assertion that even though men are unable to sacrifice their integrity, "hundreds of thousands of woman have." Mrs. Linde found it necessary to abandon Krogstad, her true but poor love, and marry a richer man in order to support her mother and two brothers. The nanny has to abandon her children to support herself by working for Nora. Though Nora is economically advantaged, in comparison to the other female characters, she leads a hard life because society dictates that Torvald be the marriages dominant member. Torvald condescends Nora and inadvertently forces Nora to hide the loan from him. Nora knows that Torvald could never accept the idea that his wife, or any other woman, could aid in saving his life.
In the play, Torvald also doesn’t trust Nora with money, when Nora wants money instead ...
Henrik Ibsen paints a sad picture of the sacrificial role of women throughout all social economical classes in his play “A Doll House”. The story is set in the late 19th century and all minor female characters had to overcome adversity to the expense of love, family and self-realization, in order to lead a comfortable life. While the main female protagonist Nora struggles with her increasingly troubled marriage, she soon realizes, she needs to change her life to be happy as the play climaxes. Her journey to self-discovery is achieved by the threat of her past crime and her oppressing husband, Torvald and the society he represents. The minor female characters exemplifying Nora’s ultimate sacrifice.